Chapter 96: A Tragic Car Accident, a Bizarre Disappearance, and a Strange Instant Messenger Account

After returning to his bedroom, Xu Lang lay on his bed, scrolling through his phone gallery and rewatching the video he had just recorded.

The video was pitch black, showing nothing clearly. However, as the camera lens shifted toward the roof of the residential building across the way, a red dot suddenly appeared. It was there for only a fleeting moment, but its presence was undeniable. Seeing this, a shadow of gloom settled over Xu Lang’s heart.

He was reminded of the 810 case and the words Song Anguo had spoken to him before jumping to his death.

"He has returned. He is here in S City."

Initially, when Xu Lang first heard this, he had a vague premonition that the "he" Song Anguo referred to was the killer of his own family. But whether that was the truth, Xu Lang could no longer know, for Song Anguo was dead.

Following Song Anguo’s death, Xu Lang had recalled those words more than once, pondering who this "he" might be, yet he always arrived at a dead end. Later, Xu Lang went to the countryside to recover from his injuries. After returning, he had encountered no incidents—until tonight. Based on a sudden, instinctive feeling, Xu Lang realized someone seemed to be monitoring him. So, who was this person? Could it be the "he" Song Anguo spoke of before he died?

Haunted by this question and a sense of unease, Xu Lang slowly drifted off to sleep.

He slept without dreams. The next day, when Xu Lang woke up, it was already nine in the morning. Because he was the one who reported the murder and the first to arrive at the scene, he washed up and headed straight to the police station.

When Xu Lang reached the Second Criminal Investigation Team, they were already in the middle of a case analysis meeting. No one was surprised by his arrival; after he sat down, the team continued their briefing.

The crime scene was remarkably simple and straightforward—it could even be described as surgically clean.

First, according to Li Lei’s forensic examination of the scene, there were no fingerprints or footprints found other than those of the victim, Tian Yang, and the footprints of Xu Lang and the responding officers.

Second, based on the autopsy performed by forensic pathologist Ye Xuefei, the victim died from shock due to blood loss after a sharp object pierced his heart. Aside from the single wound caused by a kitchen knife, there were no other injuries on the body. The murder weapon was a kitchen knife from the victim’s own kitchen, and it bore no fingerprints other than the victim’s own.

Next, Lu Xing retrieved the residential complex’s surveillance footage. He discovered that the victim, Tian Yang, had returned home at 7:00 PM the day before yesterday and had not left the complex since. During this period, no suspicious individuals were spotted entering the building. If one were to count "suspicious individuals," there were only Xu Lang, Jin Enpei, and the police officers from the Second Team, all of whom arrived after Tian Yang was already dead.

Finally, according to Zhao Hua’s interviews with the residents, they would occasionally cross paths with Tian Yang while coming and going to work. Though they weren't close, they recognized him as a nodding acquaintance. On the day of the incident, none of them saw any suspicious persons visiting unit 502, block 3.

In summary, based on the current evidence, the death of Tian Yang strongly appeared to be a suicide, with no indications of foul play. Yet, everyone felt the case was extremely strange—it had an off-putting quality to it, and no matter how they looked at it, it didn't feel like a suicide.

First, if someone wanted to commit suicide, there were many ways to do so: jumping from a building, drowning, slitting wrists, etc. But no one chooses to plunge a knife into their own heart; that method requires immense courage and the endurance of excruciating pain.

Second, assuming Tian Yang did commit suicide, why would he send a message to Jin Enpei before his death, along with a very strange photo? Why would he do that? The photo sent to Jin Enpei was clearly not a selfie, but one taken by someone else. Who could that person be?

Third, there was the matter of the door to 502. When Xu Lang arrived, the door was left slightly ajar. Why was it ajar instead of closed? This wasn't the countryside; there was no custom of leaving doors open while home. Was it because Tian Yang, having decided to end his life, wanted his body to be discovered sooner?

Fourth, there was the computer left on at the desk. When Xu Lang and his team arrived, the screen was in sleep mode, not powered off. When Li Lei and the others woke the computer, they found the desktop occupied by a single, graphic, and terrifying image: a person struck by a car and severed in two, the upper body lying in a pool of blood while the lower body was crushed beneath the wheels. Upon enlarging the photo, it was clear the victim was a female, and based on her facial features, she was the same girl in the framed photo on Tian Yang’s desk. If Tian Yang intended to commit suicide, why would this be his desktop wallpaper?

It was evident that this was not a suicide, but a meticulously staged scene. Of course, these were merely suspicions; to prove that Tian Yang did not commit suicide but was murdered, they needed concrete evidence.

After some discussion, everyone thought of one person: the victim’s first love, Duan Yiling. To get to the bottom of this, they had to investigate her, which meant investigating the car accident from a year ago.

Ning Yanran divided the team into three groups: one to investigate Tian Yang’s life, one to look into the deceased Duan Yiling, and one to continue examining the crime scene for any overlooked clues.

With a clear direction, everything proceeded methodically. Since Zhang Lei was occupied with the Song Yongde case, the tasks that would have fallen to him were handled by Ning Yanran personally.

During the meeting, Xu Lang offered no opinions, listening in silence. When Ning Yanran specifically asked him if he had any thoughts before issuing orders, Xu Lang shook his head. This struck everyone as odd, especially Ye Xuefei, who had been paying close attention to him. For the first time, she showed a look of surprise, though it vanished as quickly as it had appeared, hidden away instantly.

After the meeting, Xu Lang followed Ye Xuefei to the morgue. She stood before the autopsy table in her white coat, gloves, and mask, looking at Tian Yang’s body lying silently on the cold steel. Xu Lang stood to the side, arms crossed, one hand rubbing his chin, his brow deeply furrowed as he stared fixedly at the wound on the victim’s chest.

Because of the extreme blood loss, the skin was deathly pale, and the flesh around the wound was equally colorless. Watching this, Xu Lang’s frown deepened. Finally, after a long moment, he turned and left the morgue, returning to the Second Team’s office area.

Not long after he returned, the group investigating Tian Yang reported back with news that left Xu Lang bewildered.

The victim was indeed Tian Yang, but according to their findings, Tian Yang had gone missing a year ago. This information came directly from his parents.

The story went back to the romance between Tian Yang and Duan Yiling.

Tian Yang and Duan Yiling were the same age; had she lived, she would be twenty-four this year. They were born on the same day of the same month of the same year. In college, though they weren't in the same major—Tian Yang studied fashion design, while Duan Yiling studied finance—they attended the same school.

A college life without a romance is incomplete, and Tian Yang and Duan Yiling met during their university years, becoming each other’s first love. Usually, graduation marks the end of such relationships. While not every couple breaks up, most go their separate ways. But Tian Yang and Duan Yiling did not; in fact, their relationship grew even stronger.

After graduation, Duan Yiling went to work at a finance firm, and Tian Yang joined a fashion design company. Tian Yang was an introverted young man—honest, shy, kind, and a bit of a homebody. His only hobby was staying home and surfing the internet. This was known not only to his parents but also his roommates and colleagues.

During school, Tian Yang lived a very disciplined life: attending classes, eating on time, and spending his evenings in the dorm on his phone or the internet. That was how he had met Duan Yiling.

After graduation, his life remained the same: work, then straight home. He rarely left the house. Because he lacked exposure to sunlight, his skin was unnaturally white—a sickly pallor that Ye Xuefei had also noted during the autopsy.

The "disappearance" his parents spoke of began a year ago.

When they were dating, both sets of parents were aware of the relationship. They had visited each other’s homes and approved of the match. They were in the middle of planning the wedding and deciding on a studio for their wedding photos when tragedy struck.

A year ago, on her way home from work, the bus Duan Yiling was riding collided with a dump truck. Duan Yiling was killed instantly, her body left in a horrific and bloody state.

The death left Duan Yiling’s mother devastated, and her boyfriend, Tian Yang, was inconsolable.

The police investigation concluded the crash was an accident. The driver of the dump truck was sentenced to seven years for negligent homicide, and the victim's mother received compensation. With that, the case was closed.

However, less than a month after Duan Yiling’s funeral, Tian Yang suddenly vanished.

He had requested a six-month leave from his company, citing a need to study. His superiors, sympathetic to his loss, approved the request. That was when Tian Yang disappeared from everyone’s sight.

He cut ties with his colleagues, his parents, and all his friends. During that year, no one knew where he had gone, what he had done, or what he had endured.

When speaking of his disappearance, everyone who knew Tian Yang felt a strange sense of unease. Many were reluctant to talk about it, but after some prodding by the police, they revealed that although he was nowhere to be found, his social media accounts were frequently updated. Not only did his status change, but there were also many messages left on the message board of the deceased Duan Yiling’s profile.

First, on Duan Yiling’s social media page, they discovered that Tian Yang left messages every single day. The content was deeply moving and sentimental, expressing his longing for her. The words were simple and unadorned, but the emotions were so intense that anyone reading them would be deeply touched.

Second, there were the status updates. After Tian Yang disappeared, each update was strange, as if it weren't posted by him, but rather mimicked the habits Duan Yiling had while she was alive. At first, friends would "like" or comment on them, thinking it was just his way of mourning. But as time went on, the constant updates started to feel unsettling.

Then, there were the selfies. Every time he uploaded a photo, it had a red frame around it. At first, no one thought much of it, but what was truly strange was that the next day, at the exact same time, the framed photo would be deleted and replaced with an identical one without the frame.

Faced with this, combined with his status updates, people began to feel creeped out. Some friends tried to message him, asking why he was posting such things. Tian Yang gave them the same explanation he had given Jin Enpei. In this scientific age, some thought it was a prank, some thought a hacker was toying with him, and others believed he had suffered a mental breakdown due to the sudden loss of his first love. Kind-hearted people tried to comfort him, while others simply blocked him. Eventually, most people stopped trying to reach out and deleted him.

The police didn't find this reaction strange; it was unnerving to see someone posting in the voice of a dead person.

Tian Yang didn't reappear until over a month ago.

His parents were overjoyed, but Tian Yang only came home once, ate a single meal, and left. He offered no explanation for where he had been or what he had done, nor did he move back in or stay the night.

His parents knew he was renting a place somewhere, but they didn't know where.

After returning, Tian Yang went back to his old job, living a nine-to-five life.

His colleagues had heard about the social media activity during his year away. When he returned, many were hesitant to get close to him, unsure of what he had been through. But after the initial suspicion, they realized he was still the same old Tian Yang, and they eventually relaxed and resumed working with him.

Upon receiving this report, Xu Lang ordered his team to press Tian Yang’s parents and friends for more details: did they know where he went and what he did during that year?

In truth, they had already tried, but the results were disappointing. No one knew anything.

After hearing the briefing, Xu Lang focused on a detail: the date Tian Yang reappeared—August 11th.

August 11th was the day Tian Yang contacted Jin Enpei at the Lang Ge Detective Agency, the day he reappeared, and the day after the 810 case occurred.

Thinking of this, Xu Lang felt even more troubled. Why did Tian Yang choose that day to appear? Why did he contact the detective agency first?

Comparing what Tian Yang told Jin Enpei with what his friends and family reported, there were many similarities, but the key differences were the social media posts made in Duan Yiling's voice and the strange photo-uploading ritual—things he had not mentioned to Jin Enpei.

With this in mind, Xu Lang instructed Lu Xing to find a way to access Tian Yang’s and Duan Yiling’s social media accounts to see what was really going on. Only by uncovering the truth behind these accounts could they move forward, rather than relying on the subjective, clouded accounts of others.